South Korean warnings and Russian scorn
THE WORLD REACTS TO POT LEGALIZATION
Aweek after Canada became the second country in the world to legalize recreational cannabis nationwide, only a few other countries have offered any public reaction. Here’s what the world has had to say since pot became legal here last Wednesday.
THE REPUBLIC OF KOREA
South Korea’s government tried to dissuade its citizens from toking by tweeting on its Ottawa embassy’s account last Tuesday, in Korean, that they would still be breaking South Korean law by smoking weed in Canada.
“Even if South Koreans are in a region where marijuana is legal, it will be illegal for them to consume it,” the tweet said, according to a translation published by The New York Times. “Please take care not to commit an illegal act and be punished.”
Koreans can be sent to prison just for consuming pot, let alone possessing, transporting or growing it. The same rules apply to everything in South Korea’s criminal code — citizens can be prosecuted when they return home, even if their actions were legal in the jurisdiction they visited.
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
In a statement posted to its embassy’s Twitter account, the Russian ministry of foreign affairs said it considers Canada’s decision “unacceptable” and “hypocritical.” The statement was posted in French only, catching the attention of such media outlets as the Journal de Montreal but escaping attention in English Canada.
“We are convinced that this legislative act contravenes international jurisdiction on narcotics control,” the statement read. It warned that Canada was ignoring “the consequences of its actions for the integrity of international law.”
Meanwhile, most of the Western world has sanctioned Russia for what Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and other countries consider to be flagrant violations of international law, such as the alleged attempt to murder a former Russian agent, on British soil, with a deadly nerve agent.
THE UNITED NATIONS
Russia is correct, however, in saying that Canada is flouting its international commitments by legalizing cannabis. It’s specifically flouting a statement issued in September, when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau signed on to a United States-led “Global Call to Action on the World Drug Problem.”
The United Nations body that governs international drug control, the International Narcotics Control Board, issued a statement last Wednesday reiterating its “regret” at the policy choice. Canada is violating its agreement to “limit the production, manufacture, export, import, distribution of, trade in, use and possession of drugs exclusively to medical and scientific purposes,” the statement said, which the INCB argued weakens the whole institution.
An international meeting of the control board is scheduled for the first two weeks of November where parties will “examine the matter,” according to the statement.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
This brings us to what has caused significant anxiety to some Canadians ever since plans to legalize recreational cannabis were announced: that people might be stopped at the U.S. border for doing something that’s legal in Canada, but that’s illegal in the states.
After some reports earlier this year of Canadians being turned away from the border because they admitted to smoking cannabis at some point in their lives, even though several states have legalized pot, too, the federal government was trying to assuage such fears last week — and stressing that people shouldn’t lie to immigration officers.
Bill Blair, the federal minister of border security and organized crime, told reporters last Wednesday he took the U.S. Customs Border Patrol’s recent statements as a positive sign, and that people involved in the legal cannabis industry would “generally not be prohibited from coming into the United States.”
“We also want to ensure that every Canadian understands that, though cannabis may be legal to possess in Canada for adults, it is strictly prohibited to take any amount of cannabis across the border into the United States or into any other country.”
THE ORIENTAL REPUBLIC OF URUGUAY?
The only other country in the world to have nationally legalized cannabis is Uruguay. At least one Latin American news report last week worried the South American nation might lose its foothold as the world’s foremost cannabis pioneer.
But might the two markets work together, now that they’re in the same boat? Earlier this year, Canada entered trade negotiations with Mercosur, a trade bloc that includes Uruguay along with Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.
The Post inquired with the Canadian government whether some kind of legal weed trade between Canada and Uruguay was being discussed as part of those negotiations.
A senior official provided a one-word reply: “No.”